By GREGORY ROBERTS, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Monday, May 21, 2007

Port of Seattle Commissioner Pat Davis broke the law when she unilaterally signed a memo promising outgoing Executive Director Mic Dinsmore a six-figure severance windfall, two other port commissioners wrote in April e-mails as the issue came to light -- and Davis should resign from office or possibly face censure by the commission, the commissioners recommended.

The full commission ultimately blocked the payment to Dinsmore and referred the matter to its ethics board, which has asked Terrence Carroll, a former King County Superior Court judge, to handle the investigation.

In an April 22 e-mail to Tay Yoshitani, who succeeded Dinsmore in March, Commission President John Creighton wrote that he believed Davis "committed an illegal act" in signing the memo on her own. Creighton said he was sorry the mess landed in Yoshitani's lap in his first month with the port, then added, "But the quickest way out of the mud is for Pat to submit her resignation."

A week earlier (before the matter became public), Commissioner Lloyd Hara had e-mailed Creighton and said he also saw Davis' action as illegal. And, Hara wrote, "I agree with you (that) if Pat was in cahoots with Mic, Pat should be admonished or possibly censored (sic) by the Commission. I can't believe that they felt that they could pull a fast one ... and no one would catch it."

Creighton, Hara and Yoshitani are traveling in Japan on port business. In an e-mail Monday, Creighton declined to comment on the earlier messages.

But Hara, reached by cell phone, said his views have not changed since April 15. "I personally believe we need to take strong action," he said.

Davis was out of state Monday, a commission spokeswoman said, and could not be reached. She previously has denied any wrongdoing and said she did not act on her own in signing the memo.

Davis faces an effort to remove her from her elected office as commissioner, which she has held for 22 years. A Renton schoolteacher has filed a recall petition accusing her of malfeasance for her role in the severance deal. He is seeking the 149,124 signatures he needs to put the recall on the ballot.

The Oct. 10 memo signed by Davis and Dinsmore extended his salary from his mid-March resignation date for up to a year, under a policy designed for employees who had been fired or whose jobs had been eliminated. Dinsmore, who earned $339,841 a year, left the job voluntarily.

Davis has said she knew the agreement was subject to later approval by the full commission -- and she and Dinsmore have insisted it was discussed with the other commissioners. Creighton, Hara and Commissioner Alec Fisken have denied participating in any such conversation, while the fifth commissioner, Bob Edwards, has declined to comment.

State Auditor Brian Sonntag has said an extension of Dinsmore's salary beyond his departure likely would be an illegal gift of public funds.

The elected commission is the governing body for the port, a public agency that manages waterfront activities, Sea-Tac Airport, marinas and real estate. It is financed by a King County property tax that will generate $68.3 million this year. The commission appoints the executive director, who oversees day-to-day operations at the port.